Huntington Ingalls opens new office in Houston

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) said Tuesday it is opening an office in Houston, Texas, to pursue opportunities in the energy infrastructure market for its Avondale subsidiary.

“We have a great workforce at Avondale with unique engineering and manufacturing capabilities that have been demonstrated for many decades,” Mike Petters, HII’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Additionally, these skilled men and women are located in the heart of a region where there is more manufacturing demand than the current suppliers can meet, particularly in the energy markets.”

Chris Kastner, HII’s corporate vice president and general manager, corporate development, who is leading the effort for Avondale, added, “We are in active discussions with respected companies in the oil and gas infrastructure market. We’ve satisfied ourselves that the engineering and construction elements of these projects are very comparable to shipbuilding, and we are working very hard, both internally and with prospective customers, evaluating and competing for new opportunities.”

The company said Avondale will transition into this market by building upon the shipyard’s 30-plus years of modular engineering and construction expertise and nearly 75years of experience in heavy manufacturing. Located on the Mississippi River near New Orleans, the 268-acre Avondale facility has the potential to employ up to 10,000 people.

HII, based in Newport News, designs builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe.